protoplanetary disk
Baby Stars Discharge “Sneezes” of Gas and Dust
I’m really not sure what to call it but a ‘dusty sneeze’ is probably as good as anything. We have…
In a Distant Solar System, the JWST Sees the End of Planet Formation
Every time a star forms, it represents an explosion of possibilities. Not for the star itself; its fate is governed…
One in Twelve Stars Ate a Planet
That stars can eat planets is axiomatic. If a small enough planet gets too close to a large enough star,…
Webb Sees a System That Just Finished Forming its Planets
When a young star begins forming, it's spinning rapidly, surrounded by a flattened disk that grows its future planets. Once…
This Planet-Forming Disk has More Water Than Earth’s Oceans
Astronomers have detected a large amount of water vapour in the protoplanetary disk around a young star. There's at least…
How We Get Planets from Clumping Dust
Our gleaming Earth, brimming with liquid water and swarming with life, began as all rocky planets do: dust. Somehow, mere…
Seeing the Moment Planets Start to Form
Nature makes few duplicates, and planets are as distinct from one another as snowflakes are. But planets all start out…
Clumps Around a Young Star Could Eventually Turn Into Planets Like Jupiter
New images from the European Southern Observatory show a young star surrounded by dusty clumps that could collapse and create…
Astronomers Directly Image Debris Disk and find a Jupiter-Sized Planet Orbiting a Sunlike Star
The SHINE collaboration recently observed a Super-Jupiter within a young debris orbiting a nearby star. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO); M. Weiss…
Ceres Probably Formed Farther out in the Solar System and Migrated Inward
When Sicilian astronomer Giuseppe Piazzi spotted Ceres in 1801, he thought it was a planet. Astronomers didn't know about asteroids…